Mia Fischel, Asst. Features Editor—

At seven years old, Laine Hursh ‘23 began playing golf competitively. Now as a senior, she celebrated shooting an all time low score surrounded by friends and family. And then went on to beat it a couple weeks later.

“I shot my record low which was 71. And then a couple of weeks later, we turned around and I beat that score. So it was just a really, really great feeling that I had never shot under par before and I shot under at 71 and then turned around and shot 70,” Hursh said.

On a team of eight, Hursh spends a lot of time with her teammates: an overnight tournament in the mountains of West Virginia with no cell service, a cooking competition between class years, and bonding over long car rides. Still, she finds that it’s their different playing styles which make them cohesive as a whole.

“I play a lot better when I’m really hyped up and energized but also I don’t want to talk to anybody, whereas some people are chatty cathy’s and other people are stoic or my teammate last year used to listen to classical music to warm up,” Hursh said. “So it’s just really funny at the end of the day to all be able to relate to one another on what we do on the course, but our preparations look really different.”

Support from her teammates and coach Lauren Grogan encouraged her to explore different interests and build an identity outside of golf.

“We talk a lot about ‘person over player’ and I think that’s really helped me feel supported in my endeavors outside of golf,” Hursh said. “I know that I am so much more than just a golfer, which is really hard because especially growing up doing tournaments sometimes I tied my entire identity to that and I was like, if I quit golf, I don’t know who I would be.”

Hursh studies communications and is also involved in orientation programs like Aug-O, works in admissions and participates in other clubs. Over the years she has learned to balance her time between golf and other activities.

“When I came in as a first year I had kind of an identity crisis; I was really involved in the arts in high school, but I was also into golf. I felt supported by my coach and teammates and throughout college I’ve really been able to create the life I wanted at Denison and be able to explore my interests while also competing,” Hursh said.

During her sophomore year conference tournament, after struggling through a season impacted by COVID, Hursh was focused on advancing the team to nationals. Playing on a tough course, she didn’t expect much from her performance.

“I didn’t know where I was in the grand scheme of things. And then, at the end of the tournament my dad was like, ‘you won,’ and I wanted the team to win and get a nationals bid so I was like ‘I know we’re going to nationals,’” Hursh said. “And he was like, ‘no, you won, like you won the tournament,’ and I was like ‘are you kidding me?’”

While this represented a fantastic achievement, Hursh also reflected on how the score and result of a tournament might not reflect the effort put into it.

“That’s the cool thing about golf because the outward score and what actually happened can look so much different. You can play really terrible and somehow put up a score or you can play great and not have a good score at all,” Hursh said. “My last round of the year I started terribly, and I was like, you need to dig in right now and do what you know how to do. So I was happy that in that tournament, I really fought back.”

Hursh finds that when having a tough game, patience is key to maintaining a calm and positive mental state. For the upcoming spring season, she hopes to not stress out and instead enjoy the final moments of her golf career.
“Golf is extremely rewarding to me and also it’s kind of fun doing something that a lot of people don’t understand,” Hursh said. “It’s still a male-dominated sport and I’d say it’s so cool to be like, ‘yeah, I’m a badass’ and have that kind of feeling. It’s going to feel really rewarding to see it through until the end.”